Bob Rae did the right thing today.
He has confirmed that he will not seek the leadership of the Liberal party. Some will be disappointed and some will be elated. In the last almost 150 years that this country has been around, there hasn't been a prime minister who was previously the premier of a province. The major reason for this is that there is always a point in time in a leader's reign when the leader ceases to be an asset to his party and begins to become a liability.
Bob Rae had that moment, as did Mike Harris, who resigned before he could face the music. So did Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien and Pierre Trudeau. A former leader carries a history along with a record of everything that happened on his watch. So such history can be explosive to the party.
That is why leaders need to stay fresh. Once the decomposing begins, there is no stopping it.
Don't get me wrong. I think Bob Rae would have made a great Prime Minister, but his history will always be his greatest liability.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Dear Hamilton Spectator
It's nice to be recognized as one the LINQ community voices.
But could you at least look at my blog to get my name right?
Love,
Ren.
Update: I did this entry on my son's computer and didn't realize that I spelled Spectator wrong.
Where's my proof reader Adrian when I need him???
But could you at least look at my blog to get my name right?
Love,
Ren.
Update: I did this entry on my son's computer and didn't realize that I spelled Spectator wrong.
Where's my proof reader Adrian when I need him???
Friday, June 1, 2012
One-way, two-way - Is there any way???
The gang over at Raise the Hammer are now debating how Main Street should look when some councillor begins the really crazy idea of slowing downtown to a crawl, not even during construction season!
Being a Hamiltonian, there is no rite of passage greater than the quest of navigating your way through downtown along the one way streets. It is your initiation into the great brotherhood of Hamiltonians. Of course that would go hand in hand with driving along Burlington Street and Industrial Drive (oh no! one way streets!) and coming out to either end of the road with your suspension still intact! But I digress...
I am only going to say this: I cannot get behind such a plan without a suitable traffic management plan which would have the same level of traffic flow or better. Any plan that would end up creating inconvenience for many to create some semblance of livability for the few is not a step forward.
James Street and John Street are now two way roads and while there is improvement to life north of King Street, there is chaos to the south. Not a day goes by without a pedestrian crossing St. Joseph's Drive, walking uphill along James Street South, experiencing a near miss from a car that was turning onto St. Joseph's Drive from James Street.
And what about the International Village stretch of King Street? How will anyone navigate through that while going through downtown to get on the 403? There's only two lanes and they both go the same direction. There would a lot of work to do, should we somehow head in that direction.
Hamilton used to be a place where people met and now it's not so much anymore and that's not attributed to one-way or two-way streets, but to the lack of vision and imagination that made cities like Toronto great and cities like Hamilton end up with more street level parking lots. Apart from Lister Block can you name a great office building or real estate project that could mill all the great visionaries over to us?
We are about to embark on building a new rapid transit system and a new stadium, neither of which required or solicited a radical vision, but radical visions are needed to keep our city vibrant and they need to move the city forward, and not turn back the clock.
Being a Hamiltonian, there is no rite of passage greater than the quest of navigating your way through downtown along the one way streets. It is your initiation into the great brotherhood of Hamiltonians. Of course that would go hand in hand with driving along Burlington Street and Industrial Drive (oh no! one way streets!) and coming out to either end of the road with your suspension still intact! But I digress...
I am only going to say this: I cannot get behind such a plan without a suitable traffic management plan which would have the same level of traffic flow or better. Any plan that would end up creating inconvenience for many to create some semblance of livability for the few is not a step forward.
James Street and John Street are now two way roads and while there is improvement to life north of King Street, there is chaos to the south. Not a day goes by without a pedestrian crossing St. Joseph's Drive, walking uphill along James Street South, experiencing a near miss from a car that was turning onto St. Joseph's Drive from James Street.
And what about the International Village stretch of King Street? How will anyone navigate through that while going through downtown to get on the 403? There's only two lanes and they both go the same direction. There would a lot of work to do, should we somehow head in that direction.
Hamilton used to be a place where people met and now it's not so much anymore and that's not attributed to one-way or two-way streets, but to the lack of vision and imagination that made cities like Toronto great and cities like Hamilton end up with more street level parking lots. Apart from Lister Block can you name a great office building or real estate project that could mill all the great visionaries over to us?
We are about to embark on building a new rapid transit system and a new stadium, neither of which required or solicited a radical vision, but radical visions are needed to keep our city vibrant and they need to move the city forward, and not turn back the clock.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Ontario Budget - The Slow Painful Return of Sanity
So the Ontario Budget has passed and it is with great credit to both Premier Dalton "Dad" McGuinty and Third Party Leader Andrea "Mom" Horwath. I would like to first congratulate the two leaders for deciding to compromise together. They certainly understood that no one wants another election and neither of them want the other guy in power, which could have been the result.
And of course "Tea Party" Tim Hudak gets the brickbat for his inability to negotiate a suitable plan, hoping he'd get a do-over of a disastrous campaign. But it was not to be and Timmy once again was on the outside looking in. And I'm sure he can expect far more of this. Tim Hudak still hasn't learned his lesson and will have to sit in opposition for another two years. Too bad, so sad. No power for you!
Now it's time for McGuinty and Horwath to co-operate with each other and keep shutting Timmy out. This man is a loose cannon and is truly not worthy, let alone mature enough to take the reins of the economic powerhouse that is Ontario. Yes folks, Ontario is still the economic powerhouse. No prosperous Ontario, no prosperous Canada. That's the equation.
We certainly can't afford to tie our economy completely into the energy industry. At some point, one energy company will do something incredibly stupid and next thing you know, energy companies start going under. If there is anything we should be learning, it is not to put all our eggs into one basket. Ontario remains the financial center of the country and where most acts of commerce happen. Ontario doesn't need to be in lockstep with Alberta, because we're not Alberta.
The sooner we realize this, the sooner we will understand that such ideologies should be confronted with the same level of ferocity as they have used in dividing us in the first place. Social conservatism will be ruin of our country, our province and our place in the world.
And of course "Tea Party" Tim Hudak gets the brickbat for his inability to negotiate a suitable plan, hoping he'd get a do-over of a disastrous campaign. But it was not to be and Timmy once again was on the outside looking in. And I'm sure he can expect far more of this. Tim Hudak still hasn't learned his lesson and will have to sit in opposition for another two years. Too bad, so sad. No power for you!
Now it's time for McGuinty and Horwath to co-operate with each other and keep shutting Timmy out. This man is a loose cannon and is truly not worthy, let alone mature enough to take the reins of the economic powerhouse that is Ontario. Yes folks, Ontario is still the economic powerhouse. No prosperous Ontario, no prosperous Canada. That's the equation.
We certainly can't afford to tie our economy completely into the energy industry. At some point, one energy company will do something incredibly stupid and next thing you know, energy companies start going under. If there is anything we should be learning, it is not to put all our eggs into one basket. Ontario remains the financial center of the country and where most acts of commerce happen. Ontario doesn't need to be in lockstep with Alberta, because we're not Alberta.
The sooner we realize this, the sooner we will understand that such ideologies should be confronted with the same level of ferocity as they have used in dividing us in the first place. Social conservatism will be ruin of our country, our province and our place in the world.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Modernizing the Labour Movement
Let's touch on the bigger problem with unionization in this day and age. It's not that the whole idea is antiquated. It's not that unions are irrelevant. And it's not that there is no need for unions. We do need unions to keep the powers that be in check.
It's the scope of the union that's the problem. It's too small and territorial. It can't compete against the corporations, whose fingers have crossed oceans and have taken advantage of their new found powers to force their workers to concede things they normally wouldn't, with the threat of closing their plants and throwing them out of work. What was once unconscionable has become acceptable in today's economic climate of shock capitalism. And things seem more hopeless than ever before.
But does it have to be this way?
Let's face facts. Our governments have sold us out. Rather than defend the interests of the people who elect them, they have in fact acted against our own interests. A lot of those people have vilified unions as anti-democratic, elitist and neglectful. How many times have we heard the meme "union bosses" wielded like a machete in the hands of a madman? A lot of that criticism stems from the negotiation team refusing to put a proposition to a vote. But it should be understood that holding such meetings on the insistance of the employer has "waste of time" written all over it. The union elects the negotiation team to negotiate as instructed by the membership. So why all the hate? Part of it is envy and the other part of it is the fact that the union will defend those who really shouldn't be defended, but in their view if they throw one of their own under the bus, then what's to stop others from the same fate.
So for one thing, unions need to choose their battles a little more wisely. Even the membership needs to be kept honest now and then, so perhaps they need to re-assess that end and stop defending those who don't deserve to be defended. They sometimes have sacrifice the few for the sake of the many.
There is also a lot work needed in the way unions are presented. They need to push back on the "entitlement" meme that has been going around and talk about how there may not be anyone to buy the cars, the houses or even the furniture that makes life easier to live without unions. What about those vacations? Who's going to take them? I recall an interesting epiphany made by a CFO for a company I did work for, who pointed out that it was the people on the production floor that made money for the company and everyone else was merely overhead. That's a winning line right there.
Up to now, it's the unions that changed the way people are employed, but with companies going global, the companies gain more leverage and are better able to get concessions from their workers. And with nationalism being ramped up as a diversion, the unions can ill afford to take the bait. It's time for the unions to cross the borders, get international, and go global. The only way to defeat a multinational corporation is to go multinational yourself.
Show the world what unions are truly about and get connected. Gain partnerships, even start investing in companies that support unions. And if the goal posts are moved, move with them.
The world is changing and the unions have only two choices: adapt or perish.
It's the scope of the union that's the problem. It's too small and territorial. It can't compete against the corporations, whose fingers have crossed oceans and have taken advantage of their new found powers to force their workers to concede things they normally wouldn't, with the threat of closing their plants and throwing them out of work. What was once unconscionable has become acceptable in today's economic climate of shock capitalism. And things seem more hopeless than ever before.
But does it have to be this way?
Let's face facts. Our governments have sold us out. Rather than defend the interests of the people who elect them, they have in fact acted against our own interests. A lot of those people have vilified unions as anti-democratic, elitist and neglectful. How many times have we heard the meme "union bosses" wielded like a machete in the hands of a madman? A lot of that criticism stems from the negotiation team refusing to put a proposition to a vote. But it should be understood that holding such meetings on the insistance of the employer has "waste of time" written all over it. The union elects the negotiation team to negotiate as instructed by the membership. So why all the hate? Part of it is envy and the other part of it is the fact that the union will defend those who really shouldn't be defended, but in their view if they throw one of their own under the bus, then what's to stop others from the same fate.
So for one thing, unions need to choose their battles a little more wisely. Even the membership needs to be kept honest now and then, so perhaps they need to re-assess that end and stop defending those who don't deserve to be defended. They sometimes have sacrifice the few for the sake of the many.
There is also a lot work needed in the way unions are presented. They need to push back on the "entitlement" meme that has been going around and talk about how there may not be anyone to buy the cars, the houses or even the furniture that makes life easier to live without unions. What about those vacations? Who's going to take them? I recall an interesting epiphany made by a CFO for a company I did work for, who pointed out that it was the people on the production floor that made money for the company and everyone else was merely overhead. That's a winning line right there.
Up to now, it's the unions that changed the way people are employed, but with companies going global, the companies gain more leverage and are better able to get concessions from their workers. And with nationalism being ramped up as a diversion, the unions can ill afford to take the bait. It's time for the unions to cross the borders, get international, and go global. The only way to defeat a multinational corporation is to go multinational yourself.
Show the world what unions are truly about and get connected. Gain partnerships, even start investing in companies that support unions. And if the goal posts are moved, move with them.
The world is changing and the unions have only two choices: adapt or perish.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Another Betrayal
It seems that Electro-Motive is now closing their plant in London after offering a boot to the head that the union rightly refused to accept in the form of a 50% pay cut.
When corporations negotiate in bad faith, lock out their workers and then close the plants, it sets labour relations back in years.
The CWA did do the right thing, but they got punished anyway. How this gets handled from this point is anyone's guess, but one thing is definitely for sure. The old way the unions have fought for their rights is starting to lose its effectiveness. We'll talk about this in another post...
All things aside, I recall a certain country which beat down their unions and subjugated others for being different. They even had a really crazy guy in charge with a war monger and a propagandist for lieutenants.
Parallels... they have a funny way of showing themselves.
When corporations negotiate in bad faith, lock out their workers and then close the plants, it sets labour relations back in years.
The CWA did do the right thing, but they got punished anyway. How this gets handled from this point is anyone's guess, but one thing is definitely for sure. The old way the unions have fought for their rights is starting to lose its effectiveness. We'll talk about this in another post...
All things aside, I recall a certain country which beat down their unions and subjugated others for being different. They even had a really crazy guy in charge with a war monger and a propagandist for lieutenants.
Parallels... they have a funny way of showing themselves.
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